Sounds of the Middle East go beyond borders at the Oslo World Music Festival

Middle East music is thriving as artists respond to regional turmoil. We travel to Oslo, where an eclectic evening of gigs previewed the Beirut and Beyond festival this December.

Alsarah and the Nubatones bring their ‘East-African retro-pop’ to Oslo. The evening of Arab music showcased the diversity of Middle East artists. Courtesy Bilge Öner

On the third night of the Oslo World Music Festival in Norway, the Nasjonal Jazzscene club was packed with an audience swaying and shaking to the self-proclaimed “East-African Retro-Pop” band, Alsarah and the Nubatones.

We heard rhythms inspired from Sudan, Nubia, Yemen and the Nile, along with a sonic texture of a bluesy oud, percussions (frame drums), a bass guitar and Alsarah’s rich repertoire of traditional central Sudanese wedding songs, with her own lyrical content.

All of this combined to create a sound that is both familiar to those of us in the East, and yet totally fresh.

Alsarah, however, was only partly responsible for the audience’s engagement that evening, last Friday.

Opening was the Wasl Trio, an eclectic collective of musicians consisting of Palestinian oud player and vocalist, Kamilya Jubran, French double bass player Sarah Murcia and Swiss trumpet player and electronic musician Werner Hasler.

The contemporary Arabic texts, sung powerfully by Jubran, channelled wide-ranging themes from migration to love and were set against the intricate interplay between Murcia’s contrabass, Hasler’s gear and the minimalistic oud.

The evening ended with a riveting live audiovisual performance from Hello Psychaleppo, with the electro-tarab soundscape – Arabic heritage music coupled with electronics – of Syrian Samer Saim Aldhr.

The evening of gigs was a preview of the Beirut and Beyond International Music Festival, which will be held in Lebanon in December. Alsarah and the Wasl Trip will both appear, while Hello Pyschaleppo performed last year. The line-up in Oslo was bold as the acts were wildly different, but they managed to set the stage for one another.

With the collaboration between the two festivals now in its third year, the selection of artists presented by Beirut and Beyond in Oslo offered a high-definition snapshot into the dynamic range of music coming out of the Middle East.

In the previous editions, the Beirut micro-festival in Oslo brought Egyptian songstress Maryam Saleh, Iraqi oud player Khyam Allami, Egyptian composer Maurice Louca and the rap collective, El Far3i, from Palestine and Jordan. This year, up to 300 artists played at Oslo World, travelling from every corner of the world, be it Timbuktu, Rio or Aleppo.

Now in its 22nd edition, Oslo World has become known for its high production standards, progressive global selection and its quality organisation – largely brought together by the festival’s director Alexandra Archetti Stølen.

Stølen has been the festival’s director for 10 years, making her and Oslo World a positive mentor to Beirut and Beyond.

According to Amani Semaan, director of Beirut and Beyond, the idea for the festival in Lebanon emerged in 2011 as a response to the burgeoning state of music production in Lebanon and the region.

“The situation back then was really frustrating for the musicians,” Semaan says.

“There was everything happening in Egypt, Tunis and Syria. We had a lot of musicians from Syria and Tunis who came to Beirut at that moment. The scene was getting richer, so it was the perfect time to start something like that.”

At the time, Oslo World was contemplating producing a satellite festival in the region. Instead, in December 2013, the conversation shifted towards collaboration with Beirut and Beyond.

“The underground or emerging scene in the Middle East doesn’t really have the infrastructure we have here,” says Stølen.

“For us, that was the main idea – to make a festival in Beirut to lift up the local scene, mixing in some international acts and making it a very accessible festival in the heart of the capital of Lebanon. But also to give some of the names an export visibility.”

In Oslo World, the festival’s theme of belonging included a special emphasis on identity in music, the refugee situation in Europe and mobility.

For Saim Aldhr, who sought shelter from the war in Syria in Beirut and later Minnesota in the US, these festivals do help to provide a sense of belonging.

“Besides the music itself, this is definitely something cultural – the festival lets people get to know where you’re coming from, to understand and relate to you,” he says.

“On the other hand, making music now and getting people from my country to be involved in that, it gives them a sense of belonging somewhere. And that’s more than enough.

“It really helps to bring people together. I know a lot of musicians in Syria and outside of Syria, and making music in a time of war is definitely an act of peace.”

While it may be difficult to quantify how much the festival’s theme will have a social or political impact, the collaboration with Beirut and Beyond has helped to develop an audience in Oslo interested in music from the Middle East. This means potentially more gigs for artists based here. According to Semaan, the attendance at this year’s Beirut showcase was the most highly attended since it began three years ago.

Meanwhile, artists like Louca and Jubran are becoming popular among the Oslo audience, as seen through repeat bookings and nearly sold-out shows.

For Alsarah, music festivals afford Middle East musicians the ability to tour, create and collaborate.

“Without really knowing it, festivals help to fund artists who are independent, which allows the artist to focus on their artistic interests,” she says.

“For example, we are doing this mini-European tour via Oslo World, which is helping us to find the creative time needed to write our next album. Meanwhile, we are organising and producing a show in Paris for all the refugees on November 21 – it will be a free concert, with film screenings. So having this festival brings about other possibilities.”

Back in Lebanon, Beirut and Beyond is approaching its third edition. It runs from December 3 to 6 and will showcase seven acts across three venues.

The festival also offers opportunities for regional artists and music professionals to collaborate. At the same time, it offers workshops and impromptu jam sessions.

The venture between Beirut and Beyond and Oslo World provides an interesting model for cultural exchange, quality production, and progressive ideas for festivals in the Middle East.

By the end of this year, the region will have seen the continuation of several nascent festivals including Oshtoora (Egypt), Irtijal (Lebanon), Noise from the Middle East (UAE), Al Balad Music Festival (Jordan) and Visa For Music (Morocco).

While it might seem premature to measure the impact of music festivals on the relationship between East and West, surely it must be a force for good. As Semaan says: “music can build bridges that politics cannot”.

Maha El Nabawi is a freelance journalist based in Cairo.